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Absolutely Amazing Five-Minute Mysteries: 40 New Cases of Murder and Mayhem for You to Solve
Another installment in our wildly successful series of succinct whodunits, Absolutely Amazing Five-Minute Mysteries offers more than 40 new intriguing cases to thrill, entertain, and solve in less time than it takes to brew a cup of tea! Astute readers can test their powers of observation and deductive reasoning, then turn to the end of the book for ingenious solutions to each case.
180 pages, Paperback
First published March 2, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 5, 2019
It seemed like this would be really enjoyable for me since I'm a huge mystery fan, but instead I found it kind of dull. Some of the puzzles were easy, others hard; so there's a good variety. They're also written well and pretty detailed for their length. BUT once the novelty of it wore off, I found myself becoming dissatisfied not knowing how the rest of each story turned out. It was okay. Just not my cup of tea.
September 7, 2020
It was ok. I thought some of the solutions were pretty far fetched and unrealistic.
April 1, 2010
These mysteries turned out to be tough! You read the beginning of the mystery and then had to guess the end yourself. To check to see if you were right you had to flip to the back of the book to read the solution. We got to be pretty good towards the middle and end of the novel at really reading the short stories and trying to pick up on all of the clues. There were a few things working against us though.
The first was that the book was written in 2002, so there were a few things that have changed in those years that made a mystery's clues obsolete. This was particularly true of the ones that involved computers. Also, as far as the computer based ones went, we ended up thinking WAY TOO HARD about the clues and it was always something obvious and safe that someone totally computer illiterate would have been able to get. Which was probably the safest way to go back then. Though, again, technology has changed and advanced since then and in some ways, even for 2002, there were things that just weren't taken into consideration because the technology wasn't main stream enough for the audience (though it would have been perfect for the crooks involved).
There was an excellent cross section of mysteries involved, some dating from the Victorian period on up to our techy modern day, some involving detectives, some insurance officers, some police, some the military. There is something for everyone in this short book, but it's definitely a brain stretcher that should be done with friends. It is particularly fun to read one and figure it out in advance and then sit back and be smug while you watch someone else go through the same leaps (and missteps) in logic that you did to solve it.
Rated three stars because it's not as much fun to read and figure it out on your own, and because of the dated references that the writer couldn't help but that did make one or two of the mysteries impossible to solve.
Favorite Quote:
Of course, it happened again. I know, I know... it was my own fault. What's so irritating is that, even as it was coming out of my mouth, I clued in that whoever shot the eland, it wasn't Hank Lipsett. But that didn't stop Domie from shaking his head like I'm some kind of idiot, or stop him either from saying, "Missed some elementary stuff, my dear Watson, didn't you?"
The first was that the book was written in 2002, so there were a few things that have changed in those years that made a mystery's clues obsolete. This was particularly true of the ones that involved computers. Also, as far as the computer based ones went, we ended up thinking WAY TOO HARD about the clues and it was always something obvious and safe that someone totally computer illiterate would have been able to get. Which was probably the safest way to go back then. Though, again, technology has changed and advanced since then and in some ways, even for 2002, there were things that just weren't taken into consideration because the technology wasn't main stream enough for the audience (though it would have been perfect for the crooks involved).
There was an excellent cross section of mysteries involved, some dating from the Victorian period on up to our techy modern day, some involving detectives, some insurance officers, some police, some the military. There is something for everyone in this short book, but it's definitely a brain stretcher that should be done with friends. It is particularly fun to read one and figure it out in advance and then sit back and be smug while you watch someone else go through the same leaps (and missteps) in logic that you did to solve it.
Rated three stars because it's not as much fun to read and figure it out on your own, and because of the dated references that the writer couldn't help but that did make one or two of the mysteries impossible to solve.
Favorite Quote:
Of course, it happened again. I know, I know... it was my own fault. What's so irritating is that, even as it was coming out of my mouth, I clued in that whoever shot the eland, it wasn't Hank Lipsett. But that didn't stop Domie from shaking his head like I'm some kind of idiot, or stop him either from saying, "Missed some elementary stuff, my dear Watson, didn't you?"
December 8, 2011
I did about as well with these mini-mysteries as I did with the other book by Weber--solved about half, was in the ballpark for a few more, and didn't have a clue for the rest. In my library these are catalogued in the children's section, but I'd make them YA or adult. Some of the knowledge you need in order to solve these cases even many adults wouldn't know. I enjoy the way these stretch my brain and sharpen my observation/reading skills, so I look forward to reading more.
August 31, 2016
I love these books, but I always have the same issues: every mystery is either easy, in the sense that I solve it after reading them re-skimming, or it's totally impossible. This volume has a few that I couldn't make sense of even after reading the solution. But, anyway, it is what it is, and this is more of it.
November 18, 2014
Overall these are pretty good little logic puzzles but some require specified knowledge on somethings that esoteric rather than common sense.
November 17, 2011
These were fun. Forty short mysteries ( 5 - 6 pages each) with a question or clue to be solved. The answers and explanations were given at the back of the book. Fun diversion.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews